4 Ways Retailers Can Leverage Big Data And Edge Analytics For Success

By Lisa Fretwell, Internet of Everything Managing Director, Consulting Services, Cisco Systems

Leading retailers are leveraging Big Data and edge analytics to improve customer experience and operational efficiency, while increasing sales. A tremendous volume of data can be generated every second in the retail industry, much of it from traditional sources such as transaction logs and inventory scans, as well as new sources of sensor data such as cameras in parking lots, sensors on shopping carts, beacons throughout the store, the retailer’s in-store Wi-Fi network, apps on consumers’ mobile phones and more. Leading retailers are applying advanced analytics at the edge of the network — where all this unstructured data is generated — in order to gain relevant insights and make real-time decisions that benefit both the store and the customer.

With a traditional data warehouse model, it takes significant bandwidth, cost, and time to transmit all the data to a central repository and extract the insights needed to improve operations or customer interactions. By that time, the customer has left the store and the opportunity to add value is gone. Using edge analytics, retailers can analyze all types of data on the fly and capture fleeting opportunities to deliver hyper-relevant customer experiences and optimize operations — such as streamlining the checkout or ensuring items are in stock.

Four Ways Retailers Can Leverage Big Data And Edge Analytics

1. Using Sensor Data For Checkout Optimization. Retailers can leverage data from a range of sensors including parking lot sensors, store cameras, and shopping cart tags. Applying smart analytics to this data, they can predict checkout wait times and preemptively alert store service managers when more registers need to be opened, or even automatically open registers before customers get there.  It’s best to provide these near time insights and recommendations to departmental managers, as analytics plus the human touch deliver the most sustainable improvements.

Please log in or register below to read the full article.